Conservative Christian party SGP to sign international declaration against surrogacy

Two politicians from the conservative Christian party SGP will travel to Rome this week to sign an international declaration against surrogacy. Member of European Parliament Bert-Jan Ruissen and parliamentarian Diederik van Dijk think that many people are against surrogacy but don’t dare to say so “out of fear of the fierce lobby from the LGBTI corner,” NOS reports.

The two men called surrogacy an “inhumane practice” that goes against the interests of “vulnerable children and women.” Surrogacy is “absolutely not okay,” they said. “Little babies are taken from their mothers, and women are exploited and reduced to wombs,” said the politicians from the party that is also vehemently against allowing women to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

The two will be the “first Dutch politicians” to sign the Casablanca Declaration, which was drawn up in Morocco last year and has about a hundred signatures. They called on colleagues to also speak out.

There is a bill in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, to better regulate surrogacy in the Netherlands. Among other things, it would allow a court to declare the intended parents the legal parents of the child before the surrogate mother becomes pregnant. Prospective parents may also place a call for a surrogate mother, something that is currently prohibited. The parents and surrogate must conclude an agreement in the presence of their lawyers, and the surrogate mother can receive maximum reimbursement of her expenses.